Album Pick of the Week: Johnny West - If I Had a Quarter...

As much as pop songs have done to glorify love, there has also been a fair share of material detailing the hardships, breakdowns, and heart aches caused by romantic entanglements. Johnny West's ridiculously long titled new album, If I Had a Quarter for Every Time Someone Stuck a Gun in my Face, I'd At Least Have Enough Change to Buy a Few Chocolate Bars, follows this examination of the less favourable side of love. It is the sound of a man whose heart has been torn out, ripped apart, eaten, and shat out – only for the man to find a reason to press on. Consider this John's very own Blood on the Tracks: an in depth examination of the sadness, anger, jadedness, and even strength found in the ending of a relationship. As with the rest of John's music, this album is rife with seeming contradictions that somehow manage to cohere together: it is both his most vulnerable release yet also one of his toughest sounding too, with West delivering songs like the venomous “Love Song for the Human Race” and the heart wrenching “Is You My Lover Still?”, perhaps the saddest and most (conventionally) beautiful song the man has ever wrote. As usual, John's new album also mixes the absurdly funny with the strikingly maudlin, and is accessible despite its apparent indulgences (the title of the album is evidence enough of this). Then there are the songs, which in tune with the rest of John's unintended trilogy (consisting also of The Chicken Angel Woman with a Triangle and An Absence of Sway) are remarkably and consistently amazing. "Getting into Character" bridges the gap between alt-country and solo Lou Reed, "Abandoned House Burning Down" sees John reaching prime-era Neil Young type prose, while “Sad Excuse for a Muse” is a great "fuck you, I don’t love you or need you in my life anymore" statement, every bit on par with “I’ll Feel A Whole Lot Better”, “Idiot Wind” or “Go Your Own Way.” Though not as beautiful as An Absence of Sway nor as perfect as The Chicken Angel Woman with a Triangle, If I Had a Quarter… is another great release which poises West at both his most vicious and his most emotive. Proof that though whatever he is put through, Johnny West is still capable of releasing amazing music.

Listen To: Abandoned House Burning Down, Is You My Lover Still?, Getting into Character

RIYL: Bob Dylan's Blood on the Tracks, Modest Mouse, Silver Jews